Wednesday, February 21, 2018

"In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Women’s Dipsea Hike — the first-ever cross country sporting event in the U.S. exclusively for women — there will be a ceremonial tribute hike/run on Saturday, April 21, starting at 9 a.m., at Old Mill Park.

Sponsored by the Dipsea Race Committee in partnership with One Tam and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the hike/run will follow the familiar Dipsea Trail from Mill Valley to Stinson Beach on Earth Day.

According to historian Barry Spitz, it was called a hike to escape the Amateur Athletic Union’s (AAU) ban on women competing in long-distance races at the time.

Registration is limited to 500 participants, who are encouraged to wear period costumes from 1918. Interested women can register for the untimed hike at www.dipsea.org.

A luncheon — limited to 100 registrants — will follow the event, roughly at noon, at the Stinson Beach Community Center."

You need to be a MileSplit pro plan member to view them and if you are, you can check out Jeff Parenti's interview with 2-time defending state champion Alyssa Brewer at this LINK. You can check out his interview with 2016 XC state champion Olivia O'Keeffe at this LINK. You can check out his interview with 2017 800 meter state champion Jett Charvet at this LINK.

Monday, February 12, 2018

The last NorCal male runner to win the Gatorade California Cross Country Runner of the Year was German Fernandez of Riverbank (SJS) in 2007.The last female winner was...Santa Cruz's Cate Ratliff in 2015.

I haven't been the biggest fan on the Central Section due to their competitive equity which has left McFarland competing in Division I during XC season despite their enrollment of fewer than 1000 students. However, I am quite pleased with the Central Section as you can see in the article above which details the suspension of a school that won a basketball game last week 165-38. The total for the winning team was a new California record. I have coached basketball for many years and for a coach to resort to defeating an opponent by that score is really reprehensible. The Central Section did the right thing this time and they are to be commended.The comparison has been made to a XC team defeating a team 15-50 but to me, that is not a good comparison. Thoughts?